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A review by mel_reviews_in_a_pinch
The History of Ancient Egypt by Bob Brier
3.0
This is the first Great Courses lecture that I really struggled getting through. Normally I love them and my struggle is whether it should get 4 or 5 stars. Not so with this one.
First and foremost, the book had a TON of great information. I learned a lot about Ancient Egypt that was never covered in school or that we quickly skipped through (I don’t remember spending much time on it, TBH). Professor Bob Brier clearly knows his stuff and absolutely loves being an Egyptologist.
Having said that, we come to my issue with the lecture series. Professor Bob Brier. His accent was grating for me (can’t remember if he said Bronx or Brooklyn). I felt myself cringing every time he used a word that started with H because it would become a silent H (i.e. huge and human became uge and uman). He also has a tendency to repeat himself; I’m assuming for emphasis. The problem with that here is that he does it every other sentence.
If I’m being completely honest, those irritations didn’t start to stop me from wanting to finish until about 3 hours from the end. Then it became a battle with myself to get through it.
I would recommend this lecture series if you absolutely love Egypt and Egyptology and if you’re not too finicky about accents and grammar. I would even read future books by Professor Brier, but I would never listen to another one.
First and foremost, the book had a TON of great information. I learned a lot about Ancient Egypt that was never covered in school or that we quickly skipped through (I don’t remember spending much time on it, TBH). Professor Bob Brier clearly knows his stuff and absolutely loves being an Egyptologist.
Having said that, we come to my issue with the lecture series. Professor Bob Brier. His accent was grating for me (can’t remember if he said Bronx or Brooklyn). I felt myself cringing every time he used a word that started with H because it would become a silent H (i.e. huge and human became uge and uman). He also has a tendency to repeat himself; I’m assuming for emphasis. The problem with that here is that he does it every other sentence.
If I’m being completely honest, those irritations didn’t start to stop me from wanting to finish until about 3 hours from the end. Then it became a battle with myself to get through it.
I would recommend this lecture series if you absolutely love Egypt and Egyptology and if you’re not too finicky about accents and grammar. I would even read future books by Professor Brier, but I would never listen to another one.